The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 29, 2025

A Lady with Three Suitors

c. 1500
pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, with traces of black chalk
Sheet: 23 x 19.3 cm (9 1/16 x 7 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1956.40
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The simple background and lack of landscape detail in this drawing suggest that the image may have been a model for a tapestry or other textile.

Description

This mysterious drawing shows an encounter between elegantly dressed members of the noble class. The French inscription above the image suggests that the woman is addressing her suitors and makes it clear that they are concerned with the pursuit of love: He who will conquer my love / This [barrier] must overcome / Neither destroying it nor loosening it / Going neither below it nor above. The style of the clothing reflects French court fashions during the reign of Charles VIII (1483–98), and the subject relates to the tradition of late medieval collections of love riddles that involved verbal exchanges between courtly ladies and gentlemen.
  • ?-probably by 1507
    Antonio Badile II [1424-1507], Verona
    ?-?
    Ludovico Moscardo, Verona
    ?-?
    Teresa Moscardo [1747-?], Verona, by descent
    ?-around 1905
    Count Mario Miniscalchi-Erizzo [1881-1957], Verona, by descent
    around 1954-1956
    with Francis Matthiesen, London
    1956-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 According to Byam Shaw 1983, 214 n. 1.
    2 The Moscardo provenance given here was proposed by Evelyn Karet in "Stefano da Verona, Felice Feliciano, and the First Renaissance Collection of Drawings," Arte Lombarda 124 (1998), 31-52. The traditional provenance of drawings from the Moscardo collection includes the Marquis of Calzolari as one of the former owners (first proposed by Frits Lugt, Lugt supplement 1171b), but according to Coner Fahy (Printing a Book at Verona: The Account Book of Francesco Calzolari Junior [Paris, 1993]), that is incorrect.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 578 archive.org
    "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April - June 1958." The Art Quarterly 21, no. 3 (Autumn 1958). Mentioned and reproduced: p. 336
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 75 archive.org
    Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Mentioned: p. 314, no. VII 11; Reproduced: p. 315 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 75 archive.org
    Huizinga, Johan. The Waning Middle Ages. Exh. Cat. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1969. Mentioned: pp. 43-44, no. 38; Reproduced: plate LXVIII
    Levin, William R. Images of Love and Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art. Exh. Cat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1975. Mentioned: p. 97, no. 58; Reproduced: plate IX
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 84 archive.org
    Byam Shaw, James. The Italian Drawings of the Frits Lugt Collection. Paris: Fondation Custodia, 1983. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 214 n. 1
    Muylle, Jan. "Big Fishes Eat Little Fishes by Pieter Bruegel after Hieronymus Bosch (?): A Question of Interpretation." In Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture. Edited by Roger van Schoute and Dominique Hollanders-Favart. Louvain: Université catholique de Louvain, 1985. Mentioned: p. 131; Reproduced: plate 48
    Tortora, Phyllis G. and Keith Eubank. Survey of Historic Costume: A History of Western Dress. 2nd edition. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1994. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 156
    Backhouse, Janet and Yves Giraud. Pierre Sala: Petit livre d'amour. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1994. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 138-139
    "Drawings on Exhibition." Drawing 16, no. 6 (March - April 1995): 131-133. Mentioned: p. 131
    Dunbar, Burton L. and Edward J. Olszewski, eds. Drawings in Midwestern Collections: Volume I, Early Works. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1996. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 117-119, no. 22
    DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 90-91, p. 287, no. 32; Reproduced: p. 91
    Karet, Evelyn and Peter Windows. "The Antonio II Badile Album of Drawings: A Reconstruction of an Early Sixteenth Century Collection." Arte Lombarda 145, no. 3 (2005): 23-56. Mentioned: pp. 26, pp. 37-38, no. 12v [47]; Reproduced: p. 37, no. 29
    Karet, Evelyn. The Antonio II Badile Album of Drawings: The Origins of Collecting Drawings in Early Modern Northern Italy. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. Reproduced: p. 95; mentioned: p. 96, fig. 3.31
  • Love Gardens / Forbidden Fruit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-October 29, 2023).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).
    Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).
    Images of Love and Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (organizer) (October 23-January 22, 1976).
    The Waning Middle Ages. Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS (organizer) (November 1-December 1, 1969).
    Treasures of Medieval France. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1966-January 29, 1967).
    Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).
    Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
  • {{cite web|title=A Lady with Three Suitors|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500|access-date=29 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.40